DIVERSITY  OF  ILUmiS  LIBRARY 
AT  USBANA-CHAMPAIGN    " 
ACKS 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2012  with  funding  from 

University  of  Illinois  Urbana-Champaign 


http://archive.org/details/drexelinstituteoOOdrex 


LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  ef  ILLINOIS. 


w 

h 

0 

H 

H 

J 
W 

X 

w 

(X 
Q 


DREXEL  INSTITUTE 


ART,  SCIENCE,  AND  INDUSTRY. 


DEDICATION  CEREMONIES. 


DECEMBER  17,  1891. 


PHILADELPHIA : 
PRINTED  FOR  THE  DREXEL  INSTITUTE. 

1893. 


COLLINS  PRINTING  HOUSE. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Board  of  Trustees 5 

Board  of  Managers 6 

Advisory  Board  of  Women .        .7 

Dedication  Ceremonies 9 

Invocation  by  Bishop  Potter 13 

Oration  by  the  Hon.  Chauncey  M.  Depew,  LL.D 14 

Presentation  of  the  Trust  Deeds  —  Address  by  the   Hon.  Wayne 

Mac  Veagh,  LL.D. 25 

Acceptance  of  the  Deeds  —  Address  by  James  Mac  Auister,  LL.D., 

President  of  the  Institute 30 

Description  of  the  Building 34 


(3) 


4993  f 


BOARD    OF    TRUSTEES. 


ANTHONY  J.  DREXEL, 

President. 


GEORGE  W.  CHILDS, 

Vice-President. 


ANTHONY  J.  DREXEL,  Jr., 
Treasurer. 


JAMES  W.  PAUL,  Jr., 

Secretary. 


ANTHONY  J.  DREXEL.  GEORGE  W.  CHILDS, 

RICHARD  C.  DALE,  ANTHONY  J.  DREXEL,  Jr., 

JAMES  W.  PAUL,  Jr. 


(5) 


BOAED   OF   MAKAGEES. 


ANTHOKY  J.  DREXEL, 
President. 

GEOEGE  W.  CHILDS, 

Vice-President. 

JAMES  W.  PAUL,  Jr., 

Secretary. 

(Until  Second  Tuesday  in  October,  1893.) 
ADDISON  B.  BURK,  EDWARD  DeV.  MORRELL, 

Rev.  T.  K.  CONRAD,  D.D.,  GEORGE  B.  ROBERTS, 

JOSEPH  MOORE,  Jr.,  WALTER  GEORGE  SMITH, 

EDWARD  T.  STEEL. 

(Until  Second  Tuesday  in  October,  1893.) 
JOHN  R.  DREXEL,  HERBERT  M.  HOWE,  M.D., 

GEORGE  W.  C.  DREXEL,  WILLIAM  V.  McKEAN, 

JOHN  R.  FELL,  JOSEPH  M.  WILSON. 

(Until  Second  Tuesday  in  October,  1894.) 
GEORGE  W.  CHILDS,  JAMES  W.  PAUL,  Jr., 

ANTHONY  J.  DREXEL,  JOSEPH  G.  ROSENGARTEN, 

ANTHONY  J.  DREXEL,  Jr.,  GEORGE  C.  THOMAS, 

RICHARD  C.  DALE,  J.  LOWBER  WELSH. 

JAMES  Mac  ALISTER,  LL.D., 

President  of  the  Institute. 


(6) 


ADVISOKY  BOARD  OF  WOMEN. 


MISS  ANNA  HALLOWELL, 
Chairman. 

MRS.  ELIZA  S.  TURNER, 

Secretary. 

(Until  last  Tuesday  in  October,  1892.) 
MRS.  T.  K.  CONRAD,  MRS.  GEORGE  W.  C.  DREXEL, 

MRS.  J.  BELLANGEE  COX,  MISS  MARY  DULLES, 

MRS.  GEORGE  R.  PRESTON. 

(Until  last  Tuesday  in  October,  1893.) 
MRS.  ANTHONY  J.  DREXEL,  Jr.,  MRS.  JOHN  R.  DREXEL, 

MRS.  JOSEPH  P.  MUMFORD,  MRS.  ELIZA  S.  TURNER, 

MRS.  J.  G.  WATMOUGH. 

(Until  last  Tuesday  in  October,  1894.) 
MRS.  GEORGE  W.  CHILDS,  MRS.  JOHN  R.  FELL, 

MRS.  JAMES  W.  PAUL,  Jr.,  MISS  ANNA  HALLOWELL, 

MRS.  J.  DUNDAS  LIPPINCOTT. 


(7) 


DREXEL  INSTITUTE 

DEDICATION    CEREMONIES. 


The  beautiful  and  stately  edifice,  two  hundred  feet  square, 
erected  as  the  home  of  the  Drexel  Institute,  is  situated  on  Chestnut 
Street,  at  the  corner  of  Thirty-second  Street,  Philadelphia.  It  was 
built  "  for  the  purpose  of  establishing  therein  a  school  which  will 
afford  to  persons  of  both  sexes,  on  equal  terms,  opportunities  for 
education  and  improvement  in  Art,  Science,  and  Industry ;"  and 
it  was  dedicated  to  that  beneficent  purpose  on  the  17th  day  of 
December,  1891.  On  behalf  of  Mr.  Anthony  J.  Drexel,  the 
founder  of  the  Institute,  there  was  a  formal  presentation  of  the 
trust  deed  which  conveyed  to  the  Board  of  Trustees  the  exten- 
sive and  costly  property,  the  machinery  and  appliances,  the 
furniture,  with  the  equipment  of  the  library,  museum,  and  work- 
shops ;  also  the  deed  investing  the  Trustees  with  the  munificent 
Endowment  Fund  for  its  maintenance. 

The  event  was  marked  by  impressive  religious  observance, 
by  fine  music,  by  admirable  oratory,  and  by  the  attendance  of  a 
large  concourse  of  spectators,  embracing  many  of  the  most  emi- 
nent and  distinguished  people  in  the  United  States. 

It  was,  indeed,  a  distinguished  assemblage.  The  visitors 
began  to  gather  in  the  library,  the  galleries,  and  the  great  court 
of  the  Institute,  as  early  as  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  and 
they  overflowed  the  spacious  auditorium  when  the  hour  for  the 
dedicatory  ceremonies  arrived.  The  gathering  was  memorable, 
not  only  because  of  the  thousands  of  persons  which  it  embraced, 
but  because  of  their  broadly  representative  character  and  their 
distinction  in  every  branch  of  learning,  science,  and  public  life. 

(9) 


10 

The  Auditorium  and  Music  Hall  is  on  the  north  side  of  the 
building  and  is  entered  from  the  great  court  by  descending  a 
marble  stairway.  At  the  east  end  is  a  platform,  backed  by  a 
superb  Haskell  three-manual  organ  of  the  latest  construction,  an 
almost  unique  feature  of  which  is  a  combination  and  crescendo 
pedal  by  which  all  or  any  number  of  the  thirty-two  stops  can  be 
put  on  in  an  instant. 

The  auditorium  was  softly  lighted  from  many  windows.  As 
daylight  slowly  faded  during  the  ceremonies,  incandescent  electric 
lights,  first  on  the  platform  and  then  about  the  entire  hall, 
gradually  grew  brighter  and  strengthened  the  waning  light  of  the 
sun.  The  beautiful  hall  was  entirely  without  floral  adornment. 
Nothing  but  the  classic  simplicity  of  the  interior  decoration  met 
the  eye.  The  occasion  needed  no  accessories.  The  distinguished 
audience  soon  filled  the  seats ;  chairs  were  brought  in  and  placed 
in  the  aisles,  but,  notwithstanding,  many  were  compelled  to  stand 
in  the  rear  of  the  hall. 

Seated  on  the  platform  were  nearly  two  hundred  men  and 
women — men  whose  names  are  recognized  as  synonymous  with 
achievement,  and  women  who  are  noted  in  educational  and 
charitable  circles. 

A  list  of  the  more  than  two  thousand  men  and  women 
present  at  the  ceremonies  would  include  many  of  the  best  known 
residents  of  Philadelphia,  New  York,  Brooklyn,  Baltimore,  and 
Washington.  Levi  P.  Morton,  Vice-President  of  the  United 
States,  W.  H.  H.  Miller,  Attorney-G-eneral,  John  Wanamaker, 
Postmaster-General,  and  John  "W.  Noble,  Secretary  of  the 
Interior,  represented  the  National  Government ;  Governor  Pat- 
tison,  William  P.  Harrity,  Secretary  of  the  Commonwealth,  and 
Thomas  J.  Stewart,  Secretary  of  Internal  Affairs,  the  Pennsyl- 
vania state  officials ;  while  Mayor  Stuart,  Abraham  M.  Beitler, 
Director  of  Public  Safety,  and  James  H.  Windrim,  Director  of 
Public  Works,  were  among  the  many  Philadelphia  city  officials 
present.  Mr.  George  W.  Childs,  Vice-President  of  the  Board  of 
Trustees,  assisted  by  other  members  of  the  board  of  trustees  and 
the  board  of  managers,  and  by  President  Mac  Alister,  received  the 
guests  as  they  entered  and  escorted  them  through  the  building. 


11 

The  presence  of  Bishop  Potter,  of  New  York,  and  Bishop 
Whitaker,  of  Philadelphia,  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church, 
both  of  whom  took  part  in  the  impressive  ceremonies ;  Bishop 
Howe,  of  Central  Pennsylvania ;  Bishop  Foss,  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church ;  Bishop-elect  Horstman,  of  the  Roman  Catho- 
lic Church ;  and  the  Rev.  William  H.  Furness,  D.D.,  betokened 
the  religious  sympathy  for  the  Institute.  The  presence  of  Andrew 
Carnegie,  representing  the  achievements  of  the  manufacturing 
world,  and  Thomas  A.  Edison,  "the  sovereign  genius  of  the 
electric  world,"  indicated  the  interest  of  these  two  great  branches 
of  human  activity,  of  which  the  Drexel  Institute  is  to  be  a  part. 

Chief  Justice  Daly,  of  New  York,  and  Chief  Justice  Paxson, 
of  Pennsylvania,  were  two  of  the  eminent  members  of  the  legal 
profession  present. 

Among  the  distinguished  representatives  of  education  in  its 
various  departments  were  Hon.  William  T.  Harris,  LL.D.,  U.  S. 
Commissioner  of  Education  ;  Henry  Barnard,  LL.D.,  of  Hartford, 
Conn. ;  D.  C.  Gilman,  LL.D.,  President  of  Johns  Hopkins  Uni- 
versity ;  R.  A.  Lamberton,  LL.D.,  President  of  Lehigh  Univer- 
sity ;  Seth  Low,  LL.D.,  President  of  Columbia  University ; 
William  Pepper,  LL.D.,  Provost  of  the  University  of  Pennsyl- 
vania; James  E.  Rhoads,  LL.D.,  President  of  Bryn  Mawr 
College ;  Miss  M.  Carey  Thomas,  Ph.D.,  Dean  of  Bryn  Mawr 
College;  Charles  de  Garmo,  Ph.D.,  President  of  Swarthmore 
College ;  Henry  Morton,  LL.D.,  President  of  Stevens  Institute, 
Hoboken;  Henry  Coppee,  LL.D.,  ex-President  of  Lehigh  Univer- 
sity ;  Professor  Nicholas  Murray  Butler,  Ph.D.,  of  Columbia 
University ;  Charles  Pratt,  founder  of  the  Pratt  Institute, 
Brooklyn ;  Enoch  Pratt,  founder  of  the  Pratt  Library,  Balti- 
more ;  James  W.  Mac  Kenzie,  Ph.D.,  Head  Master  of  the  Law- 
renceville  School ;  Captain  R.  H.  Pratt,  Superintendent  of  the 
Carlisle  Indian  Training  School ;  Dr.  Carey  Thomas,  President 
of  the  Johns  Hopkins  Hospital,  Baltimore. 

Besides  those  above  mentioned,  there  were  on  the  platform, 
Thomas  F.  Bayard,  ex-Secretary  of  State ;  General  B.  H.  Bristow, 
ex-Secretary  of  the  Treasury ;  T.  L.  James,  ex-Postmaster- 
General;  General  William  J.  Sewell,  ex-United  States  Senator; 


12 

Hon.  A.  G.  Cattell,  ex-United  States  Senator;  Hon.  Henry  H. 
Bingham,  M.  C,  from  Pennsylvania ;  John  Bigelow,  LL.D.,  ex- 
Minister  to  France ;  John  Russell  Young,  ex-Minister  to  China ; 
Hon.  Abram  S.  Hewitt,  ex-Mayor  of  New  York,  and  Mrs.  Hew- 
itt ;  George  B.  Roberts,  President  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad 
Company;  A.  A.  McLeod,  President  of  the  Philadelphia  and 
Reading  Railroad  Company ;  E.  P.  Wilbur,  President  of  the 
Lehigh  Yalley  Railroad  Company  ;  Frank  Thomson,  First  Yice- 
President  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  Company ;  General  C. 
T.  Christensen,  President  of  the  Brooklyn  Trust  Company; 
Richard  A.  McCurdy,  President  of  the  New  York  Mutual  Life 
Insurance  Company ;  Hon.  Chauncey  M.  Depew,  LL.D. ;  Wayne 
Mac  Yeagh,  LL.D.,  ex- Attorney-General  of  the  United  States  ; 
J.  Pierpont  Morgan,  H.  McK.  Twombly,  James  J.  Goodwin, 
John  Sloane,  M.  K.  Jessup,  and  Samuel  D.  Babcock,  of  New 
York ;  Robert  H.  Sayre,  of  Bethlehem ;  Reverdy  Johnson,  of 
Baltimore ;  Robert  Purvis,  of  Philadelphia ;  General  Daniel  H. 
Hastings,  of  Bellefonte ;  members  of  the  Philadelphia  Board  of 
Public  Education ;  members  of  Select  and  Common  Councils ; 
Trustees,  Managers,  and  Members  of  the  Advisory  Board  of 
Women  of  the  Drexel  Institute. 

It  is  sad  to  be  obliged  to  note  that  Mr.  Anthony  J.  Drexel, 
the  founder  of  the  Institute,  was  not  present  because  of  the  recent 
death  of  Mrs.  Drexel. 

THE    CEKEMOJSTIES. 

Dr.  James  Mac  Alister,  President  of  the  Institute,  presided. 

A  little  after  three  o'clock  the  presiding  officer  stepped  to 
the  reading-desk,  at  the  front  of  the  platform,  and  requested  the 
ushers  to  close  the  doors.  The  auditorium  was  already  crowded. 
The  ceremonies  began  with  Dr.  Stainer's  March,  in  D,  played  on 
the  organ  by  Mr.  James  M.  Dickinson,  the  organist  of  the  Insti- 
tute. Bishop  Potter  offered  the  following  invocation,  concluding 
with  the  Lord's  Prayer,  in  which  the  vast  assemblage  reverently 
followed  him : — 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  rf  ILLINOIS. 


13 


INVOCATION    BY    BISHOP   POTTER. 


Almighty  God !  the  fountain  of  all  wisdom  and  the  source 
of  all  strength,  look  down  from  Heaven,  we  beseech  Thee,  and 
behold  and  bless  Thy  servants  who  are  here  gathered  before 
Thee.  In  Thy  good  providence  they  have  come  to  own  Thy 
hand  and  to  praise  Thy  name,  as  for  all  Thy  benefits  so  especially 
for  the  gift  made  this  day  and  for  the  grace  that  has  wrought  in 
Thy  servant  to  the  giving  of  it. 

Thine  are  wisdom,  and  might,  and  love ;  and  it  is  alone  of 
Thy  gracious  ordering  that  as  by  Thy  holy  inspiration  we  are 
enabled  to  think  those  things  that  are  good,  so  by  Thy  merciful 
guidance  we  are  enabled  to  perform  the  same.  And,  therefore, 
we  bless  Thee  for  the  wisdom  that  conceived  and  the  beneficence 
that  has  accomplished  this  result;  and  we  pray  that  Thy  heavenly 
benediction  may  crown  this  work  with  Thy  guardianship  and 
favor. 

And  grant,  we  beseech  Thee,  Almighty  God,  that  as  all 
our  powers  and  faculties  come  from  Thee,  so  we  may  use  them 
in  Thy  fear  and  to  Thine  honor.  Thou  hast  said  in  Thy  holy 
word,  "  He  that  planted  the  ear  shall  He  not  hear  ?  and  He  that 
made  the  eye  shall  He  not  see  ?"  and  He  that  giveth  understanding, 
it  is  He  that  shall  teach  man  knowledge.  Help  us  to  remember 
to-day  this  stewardship  of  all  our  members,  whether  of  soul  or 
body,  and  grant  that  all  those  who  come  here  to  train  them  for 
the  service  of  their  fellow-man,  dedicate  them,  first,  to  Thee. 
And  so,  we  pray  Thee,  may  it  come  to  pass  that  all  the  wisdom 
and  knowledge  which  may  be  imparted  here,  wThether  it  be  the 
cunning  of  the  artificer,  the  skill  of  the  mechanician,  the  gracious 
ministry  of  domestic  service,  the  art  that  adorns  and  beautifies 
life,  or  whatever  else  may  be  learned  here,  may  pass  hence  from 
these  walls  to  make  the  world  better  and  fairer  because  of  the 
service  which  it  renders,  and  so  to  translate  to  men  everywhere 
that  love  of  the  Infinite  Fatherhood  that  hath  wrought  in  man 
and  in  all  his  best  achievements ;  smoothing,  thus,  the  world's 
rough  ways,  making  the  crooked  straight,  and  lightening  the 
burdens  of  the  weary  and  heavy-laden. 


14 

We  commend  to  Thee  all  who  shall  rule  or  teach  here  and 
all  who  shall  come  hither  to  be  taught.  Kindle  in  them  a  lofty 
purpose  and  a  constant  and  kindly  endeavor.  And  grant  to 
them,  and  especially  to  him  who  has  devised  and  here  completed 
this  noble  gift  for  the  good  of  his  fellow-men,  Thy  heavenly 
benediction.  Take,  now,  the  gift  of  him  who  gives  and  the  good 
purpose  of  those  whose  privilege  it  shall  be  to  use  his  gift — teachers 
and  pupils,  guardians  and  learners — into  Thy  gracious  keeping, 
and  guide,  guard,  and  sustain  them  with  Thy  mighty  hand. 
Bless  our  country  and  our  rulers.  Bless  us  as  a  people,  in  our 
homes  and  in  our  labors.  Guard  our  liberties  from  secret  craft 
and  from  open  enemies,  and  make  us  a  people  fearing  God  and 
working  righteousness.  All  which  we  ask  in  the  name  of  Him 
who  has  taught  us,  when  we  pray,  to  say : 

Our  Father,  which  art  in  Heaven,  hallowed  be  Thy  name ; 
Thy  Kingdom  come,  Thy  will  be  done  on  earth  as  it  is  in  Heaven. 
Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread,  and  forgive  us  our  trespasses 
as  we  forgive  those  who  trespass  against  us.  And  lead  us  not 
into  temptation,  but  deliver  us  from  evil,  for  Thine  is  the  King- 
dom, and  the  power,  and  the  glory,  forever  and  ever.     Amen. 

At  the  conclusion  of  the  invocation,  Gounod's  triumphant 
anthem,  "  Praise  Ye  the  Father,"  was  sung  by  the  choir  of  St. 
Stephen's  Protestant  Episcopal  Church. 

The  dedication  address  was  then  delivered  by  the  Hon. 
Chauncey  M.  Depew,  LL.D.,  of  New  York. 

ORATION   BY    HOIST.   CHAUNCEY   M.  DEPEW,   LL.D. 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen :  "  The  king  is  dead,  long  live  the 
king,"  has  little  application  to  our  times.  Ancient  terms  survive, 
but  they  have  lost  their  meaning.  Words  which  conveyed  cer- 
tain ideas  to  former  generations  express  different  ones  for  us. 
The  matchlock  and  the  machine  gun,  gunpowder  and  dynamite, 
represent  the  destructive  forces  past  and  present.  The  univer- 
sity of  the  school-men  of  the  middle  ages,  of  Abelard  and  Duns 


15 

Scotus,  and  the  scientific  school  and  technological  institute  of 
to-day  are  object  lessons  as  to  the  significance  of  education  then 
and  now.  We  talk  glibly  of  progress  and  the  development 
which  is  the  distinctive  glory  of  our  century,  but  the  pace  is  so 
rapid  and  the  results  so  tremendous  that  it  is  difficult  to  grasp 
either  details  or  conclusions. 

The  scientist,  the  sociologist,  the  political  philosopher,  and  the 
theologian  each  claims  for  his  department  special  recognition  for 
what  it  has  accomplished  and  for  its  advance  beyond  precedents. 
The  educator  is  compelled  to  admit  their  claims,  and  also  to  con- 
fess that,  owing  to  difficulties  which  were  not  of  his  creation,  it 
has  been  impossible  for  him  to  keep  step  with  his  cotemporaries. 

All  the  conservatism  of  centuries  has  crystallized  about  the 
university.  Every  radical  effort  to  break  up  old  systems  and 
proceed  upon  new  lines  has  met  the  combined  hostility  of  faculty 
and  alumni.  They  point  to  results,  to  the  long  list  of  men  emi- 
nent in  the  professions  and  in  literature,  whom  the  schools  claim 
to  be  their  product  and  examples. 

Far  be  it  from  me  to  detract  in  any  way  from  the  glory  of  that 
splendid  and  self-sacrificing  body  of  educators  who  have  made 
illustrious  the  title  of  teacher.  But  the  teachers  have  been  so 
compassed  and  pinioned  by  legend,  tradition,  and  environment 
that  they  have  been  unable,  except  within  a  recent  period,  to 
emancipate  the  curriculum. 

Steam,  electricity,  and  inventions  have  hardened  the  condi- 
tions of  competition  and  multiplied  indefinitely  the  number  of 
specialties.  In  the  briefest  time,  and  almost  without  warning, 
we  are  brought  face  to  face  with  the  problem  that  education  and 
prosperity,  education  and  a  livelihood,  education  and  morals, 
education  and  law,  education  and  liberty,  are  indissolubly  welded 
together. 

In  the  thirteenth  century  three  volumes  easily  contained  all 
the  learning  of  that  period.  Now,  from  twenty-five  to  thirty 
books  of  the  largest  size,  and  edited  under  the  most  various  and 
able  authorship,  do  not  pretend  to  embrace  in  their  encyclopaedia 
the  knowledge  and  discovery  in  the  world. 

In  the  middle  ages  the  people  could  be  broadly  divided  into 


16 

two  classes,  the  soldiers  and  the  producers.  The  labor  and  skill 
of  the  farmer,  the  merchant,  and  the  artisan  were  exhausted  to 
support  the  fighter.  Education  existed  only  for  ecclesiastics.  It 
was  wholly  the  privilege  of  the  Church.  As  the  nations  grew 
more  civilized  and  their  wants  increased,  the  priest  became  also 
the  lawyer  and  the  doctor.  The  professions  gradually  emanci- 
pated themselves  from  the  priesthood,  but,  nevertheless,  down 
almost  to  our  own  time,  higher  education,  the  course  in  college 
or  in  the  university,  was  reserved  for  the  liberal  professions. 
Even  among  the  most  enlightened  peoples  of  Europe  education 
is  still  a  privilege.     In  America  it  is  a  duty. 

The  first  recognition  of  the  imperative  demands  of  our  period 
was  when  the  optional  opportunity  broke  in  upon  the  time- 
honored  course  of  classics  and  mathematics.  Then  came  the 
scientific  school,  to  be  looked  upon  by  the  academic  department 
as  unworthy  of  its  equal  recognition  and  degree.  But  the 
pressing  necessities  of  practical  life  forced  many  collegians  to  go 
through  the  scientific  school  as  a  post-graduate  course,  and  the 
university  to  give  equal  honors  to  every  department  of  the  insti- 
tution. It  is  only  within  our  own  generation  that  the  perfection 
of  the  old  education  for  all  the  requirements  of  life  has  been 
questioned.  The  groping  after  the  desired  results  within  the 
accustomed  lines  led  to  the  creation  of  that  most  abused  and 
misused  word  "culture." 

The  Concord  School  gave  it  vogue  and  eminence.  "With 
Emerson  and  his  cotemporaries  it  meant  a  full  mind,  trained  in 
college,  earnestly  and  industriously  grasping  all  knowledge, 
impartially  sifting  testimony  and  tradition,  with  catholic  judg- 
ment seeking  the  truth  and  with  a  martyr's  courage  defend- 
ing it.  Culture  became  popular.  It  was  the  badge  of  a  higher 
order  of  selected  mortals.  It  excused  the  universal  range  of 
superficiality.  It  stood  for  a  little  information  about  everything 
and  no  accurate  knowledge  of  anything.  It  became  the  veneer 
of  the  quack  and  finally  the  decoration  of  the  dude.  But  it  was 
not  culture,  either  in  its  loftier  significance  or  in  its  degraded 
use,  which  the  times  required.  They  needed  the  practical  train- 
ing of  youth  for  the  new  and  sterner  realities  which  science  and 


17 

invention  had  created.  The  old  education  simply  trained  the 
mind.  The  new  trains  the  mind,  the  muscles,  and  the  senses. 
The  old  education  gave  the  intellect  a  vast  mass  of  information 
useful  in  the  library  and  useless  in  the  shop.  The  superiority  of 
the  college  graduate  over  the  boy  from  the  common  school  in  the 
counting-room,  or  the  mill,  was  in  his  disciplined  mind  and 
confirmed  habits  of  work.  The  superiority  of  the  graduate  of 
the  technological  institute  is  that  he  has  passed  the  apprentice 
period  and  learned  more  than  the  apprentice  could  ever  know. 

Our  time  is  full  of  hope  for  the  optimist  and  also  of  despair 
for  the  pessimist. 

If  the  Revolutionary  fathers  and  their  cotemporaries  couid 
be  brought  in  contact  with  the  realities  of  to-day  they  would  feel 
that  the  world  was  upside  down.  Instead  of  glorying  in  the 
achievements  of  the  present,  in  the  mills,  the  factories,  the  fur- 
naces, the  superb  machinery,  the  wonderful  tools,  the  complicated 
mechanism,  the  hot  competitions,  and  the  individual  absorbed  in 
the  mass  which  characterize  our  day,  they  would  wonder  how 
they  were  to  sustain  themselves  with  their  equipment  and  live. 
Our  national  pride  is  promoted  by  contemplation  of  the  giants  of 
our  history  in  the  Senate,  in  the  Pulpit,  at  the  Bar,  and  in  the 
professor's  chair.  It  is  the  happy  inspiration  of  youth  that  the 
distinguished  characters  of. the  past  are  presented  through  the 
lenses  of  the  years  in  heroic  proportions.  It  would  not  only  be  a 
sacrilege,  it  would  be  a  calamity,  if  modern  criticism  and  research 
stripped  Washington  of  his  majesty,  Hamilton  of  his  genius, 
Jefferson  of  his  democracy,  Jonathan  Edwards  of  his  intellectual 
superiority,  or  Daniel  Webster  of  his  peerless  pre-eminence ;  but 
for  all  practical  uses  of  the  labyrinth  and  revolution  through 
which  we  are  passing,  the  worthies  of  the  past  are  as  far  from  us 
as  King  Arthur  and  his  Knights  of  the  Round  Table,  or  William 
Tell  with  his  arrow  and  his  apple. 

One  of  the  most  eminent  of  England's  scientists  has  elabo- 
rated the  alarming  proposition  that,  in  the  destruction  of  old 
methods  and  the  exacting  requirements  of  new  conditions,  a 
period  might  arrive  when  that  nation  would  die  by  starvation. 
The  same  articles  which  constituted  its  business  and  income  would 


18 

be  manufactured  by  other  countries  better  and  more  cheaply,  and 
it  would  lose  its  market  and  revenues.  It  could  not  raise  its  food 
and  would  have  no  money  to  purchase  from  abroad.  Longer 
hours  and  lower  wages  might  postpone,  but  could  not  prevent, 
the  catastrophe.  The  weeping  philosopher  says  that  formerly 
pestilence  and  disease  kept  down  population  and  thus  saved  the 
world  from  an  excess  of  mouths  to  feed  and  bodies  to  clothe,  but 
now  medical  skill  and  sanitary  science  have  prolonged  life.  "Wars, 
he  argues,  then  served  to  prevent  increase,  but  now  all  moral  and 
political  influences  labor  for  peace.  "  I  killed  only  a  million  of 
men,  mostly  Germans,"  was  Napoleon's  ghastly  protest  against 
the  charge  of  murder,  and  yet  that  frightful  number  was  only  a 
portion  of  those  who  fell  victims  to  his  wars. 

The  tendency  of  our  times  is  for  the  people  to  mass  in 
crowded  centres  where  the  immigrants  add  continually  to  the 
difficulties  and  necessities  of  the  community.  Competition  is  the 
law  of  our  age,  and  the  survival  of  the  fittest  its  fruit.  Not  only 
are  individuals  and  corporations  subject  to  its  power,  but  cities, 
states,  and  nations.  A  line  in  a  tariff  bill  in  one  country  throws 
out  of  employment  and  reduces  to  pauperism  tens  of  thousands 
in  another.  New  machinery  or  greater  skill  transfers  the  market 
for  some  product  from  one  place  to  its  rival.  The  rolling-mills  of 
Alabama  may  put  out  the  fires  in  Pittsburg.  The  cotton  mills 
of  Georgia  may  stop  the  spindles  in  Massachusetts.  Cheapness 
and  excellence  have  become  the  factors  of  prosperity  for  nations 
and  for  towns. 

Our  plain  duty  is  not  to  waste  precious  hours  in  vain  regrets 
for  the  good  old  times,  or  wring  our  hands  in  helpless  horror  over 
the  difficulties  of  the  present.  The  pace  of  progress  may  have 
been  faster  than  our  preparations,  but  experience  has  demonstrated 
that,  when  intelligently  met,  the  new  is  always  better  than  the  old. 
The  man  who  dies  for  a  principle  is  a  hero,  but  he  who  starves, 
rather  than  abandon  the  methods  which  fed  his  fathers,  is  a  fool. 
It  is  only  a  generation  since  a  carpenter  could  plan  and  build 
a  house,  and  a  single  workman  make  a  wagon,  or  a  knife,  or  a 
shoe,  or  a  watch,  or  any  part  of  either.  Machinery  has  so  multi- 
plied and  subdivided  labor  and  stimulated  production  that  only 


19 

a  part  of  any  manufactured  article  comes  to  the  individual,  and 
upon  that  he  must  show  exceptional  skill.  The  common  school 
has  been  the  foundation  upon  which  we  have  builded  capacity 
and  character,  and  it  has  superbly  done  its  work ;  but  now  the 
system  requires  either  to  be  strengthened  or  to  be  supplemented 
by  institutions  like  the  one  whose  opening  we  celebrate.  The 
unsolved  problem  which  gives  heartaches  to  parents  and  anxious 
thought  to  teachers  and  preachers,  is  the  constantly  increasing 
class  of  young  men  and  women  who  have  the  rudiments  of  edu- 
cation, but  are  trained  neither  for  any  trade  nor  any  business. 
They  will  not  join  the  ranks  of  unskilled  labor,  and  cannot  work 
beside  the  mechanic  or  artisan,  or  expert  accountant.  They  fall 
into  minor  positions,  already  overcrowded,  where  compensation  is 
small  and  promotion  difficult.  They  are  discouraged  as  they  see 
those  who  are  better  equipped  and  disciplined  rise  to  competence 
or  independence. 

The  strength  of  our  liberty  has  been  that  it  recognizes  indi- 
viduals and  not  classes.  It  is  still  and  always  must  be  the  pivotal 
principle  of  our  institutions.  It  was  possible  in  the  earlier  period 
and  in  sparser  settlements  to  carry  the  same  idea  into  social  and 
business  life.  But  the  inventive  genius  of  the  century  has  radi- 
cally changed  our  original  conditions.  It  has  proved  too  strong 
for  capital  and  trade  organizations  combined.  It  has  placed 
them  in  antagonism,  and  it  has  united  them  for  mutual  protec- 
tion. Invention  is  the  Frankenstein  of  our  industrial  life.  It  is 
the  soulless  creation  of  human  genius,  and  relentlessly  pursues 
its  purposes.  It  inflicts  untold  misery  upon  the  few  and  confers 
equal  benefits  on  the  many.  It  has  destroyed  the  apprentice 
system.  It  has  substituted  employer  and  employes  for  master 
and  apprentice.  "Where  individuals  found  work  and  instruction, 
armies  are  attending  upon  numberless  sections  of  complicated 
machinery.  The  skilled  workman,  who  has  conscientiously 
learned  his  part,  is  suddenly  thrown  out  by  a  device  which  renders 
his  tools  obsolete.  He  suffers  hardship  and  privations  until  he 
can  acquire  almost  a  new  trade,  or  he  drops  into  the  crowded 
ranks  of  unskilled  labor. 

Inventive  talent  can  neither  be  curbed  nor  banished.     The 


20 

necessities  of  our  commercial  success  demand  its  encouragement. 
The  limited  express  train  flies  along  the  rails  at  sixty  miles  an 
hour,  but  the  cool  and  confident  photographer  by  the  roadside 
utilizes  the  speed  of  light  and  imprints  locomotive  and  cars  as 
perfectly  upon  the  sensitive  film  as  if  they  were  standing  still  at 
the  station.  So  it  is  our  duty  to  meet  the  emergency  of  the  hour 
by  calling  into  play  and  exercise  the  latent  forces  which  God  has 
implanted  in  man  to  subdue  and  bend  to  his  will  the  powers  of 
earth  and  air. 

The  atheist  says  progress  is  a  destructive  agent,  but  governed 
by  natural  laws  which  Deity  can  neither  modify  nor  repeal.  The 
Christian  believes  that  progress  is  the  development  of  oppor- 
tunity for  a  higher  and  better  life,  and  the  sons  and  daughters  of 
the  world  must  be  ready  to  throw  aside  the  old  and  prepare  to 
welcome  and  work  with  the  new.  Civilization  destroys  the  wild 
game  which  is  the  support  of  the  savage,  and  he  must  earn  his 
subsistence  from  the  soil  or  die.  The  old  warrior  wraps  his  man- 
tle about  him  and  sinks  stoically  into  the  grave ;  the  young  brave 
hurls  himself  with  vain  but  dauntless  courage  upon  the  Gatling 
guns  or  the  bayonets  of  the  soldiers,  and  his  death  song  is  the 
requiem  of  the  hope  and  happiness  of  the  tribe.  But  for  those 
who  adapt  themselves  to  the  situation  are  homes  and  comforts 
never  known  before,  and  a  moral  and  intellectual  life  which  lifts 
them  upon  higher  planes  of  usefulness  and  enjoyment.  Similar 
losses  and  gains  mark  every  milestone  in  the  upward  march  of 
man. 

The  common  school  is  aroused  by  the  clang  of  the  combat 
and  seeks  better  to  equip  its  recruits  by  evening  classes.  This 
method  is  a  help,  and  a  great  one ;  but  it  is  still  the  old  education 
of  the  head,  and  falls  short  of  the  requirements  of  the  hour.  The 
college  joins  in  the  good  work  of  University  Extension  and  brings 
the  benefits  of  its  curriculum  to  the  doors  of  those  who  have  neither 
the  time  nor  the  money  to  enter  its  ancient  portals.  But  whether 
its  teachings  are  given  in  venerable  halls  or  in  the  lecture-room 
of  the  village,  the  benefit  of  its  course  of  study  must  be  mainly 
for  the  minister,  the  lawyer,  the  doctor,  the  journalist,  and  the 
business  man.     For  the  vast  army  which  must  live  by  labor,  and 


21 

upon  the  results  of  whose  labor  depends  the  welfare  of  the  country, 
no  adequate  provision  has  yet  been  made. 

This  splendid  Institute  of  Art,  Science,  and  Industry  leads 
the  column  and  points  the  way.  The  manual  training  school 
solves  the  problem  of  labor  and  industrial  development.  Here 
will  be  given  instruction  in  the  principles  of  science,  art,  and 
mechanics,  and  their  application  to  the  mill  and  the  mine,  the 
factory  and  the  furnace,  the  shop  and  the  engine.  Here  the 
student,  after  he  has  mastered  the  principles,  can  learn  the  details 
of  his  specialty  and  grasp  the  intricacies  of  machinery.  In  the 
art  department  his  eyes  will  be  educated  and  his  hands  trained 
by  drawing  and  perspective,  by  studies  in  light  and  shade,  by 
painting  in  oil  and  water-color,  by  theoretical  and  applied  design, 
decoration,  and  ornament,  and  by  architectural  and  mechanical 
drawing.  But  physical  methods  will  be  supplemented  by 
thorough  instruction  in  the  theory  and  history  of  art.  In  the 
scientific  department  the  secrets  of  the  laboratory  will  be  revealed, 
chemistry  and  applied  physics  will  solve  the  mysteries  of  nature, 
and  the  wonderful  works  and  properties  of  electricity  will  become 
known.  As  the  boy  advances  from  the  elementary  course,  he 
will  receive  instruction  and  become  familiar  with  the  workshop 
and  its  machinery  and  tools.  He  will  grow  skilful  in  the  hand- 
ling, manipulation,  moulding,  and  carving  of  wood  and  iron. 
Work  on  the  bench,,  with  the  lathe,  the  drill,  the  plane,  and  the 
screw,  and  the  making  of  tools,  will  be  common  and  easy,  and 
the  student  will  practically  run  the  boiler  and  engine. 

The  graduates  of  this  school  will  not  be  confined  within  the 
narrow  lines  of  the  apprentice  nor  bound  by  the  limitations  of 
the  specialist.  Upon  the  broad  foundations  of  their  training  can 
he  securely  built  superior  capacity  for  the  paths  in  the  industrial 
world  which  they  elect  to  follow.  They  will  hail  the  inventor  as 
their  friend  and  follow  with  keen  delight  his  discoveries  and 
improvements.  He  may  render  obsolete  and  useless  the  tools 
to  which  they  are  accustomed,  or  the  work  which  they  produce ; 
but  their  thorough  grounding  in  principles  will  enable  them 
instantly  to  understand  his  device  and  adapt  themselves  to  the 
fresh  roads  they  must  tread  or  retire  to  the  rear.     Disciplined 


22 

intelligence  and  harmoniously  cultivated  minds  and  muscles 
will  give  the  economy  in  the  use  of  materials  and  skill  in  the 
handling  of  tools  which  will  command  the  markets  at  home  and 
abroad  against  the  output  of  mills  and  factories,  where  their 
brethren  vainly  strive,  under  old  conditions  and  training,  to  keep 
pace  with  progress  and  earn  living  wages  in  the  fierce  strife  and 
heat  of  modern  competition. 

It  is  a  remarkable  illustration  of  the  failure  of  the  schools 
to  divine  and  meet  the  changes  of  the  century  that  the  first  sug- 
gestion of  a  manual  training  school  came  from  Victor  Delia- Yos, 
Director  of  the  Imperial  Technical  School  of  Moscow,  in  18G8. 
The  Centennial  Exhibition  in  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  in  1876, 
gave  to  educators  in  America  and  Europe  an  idea  of  its  scope 
and  necessity.  The  old  education  had  accomplished  splendid  re- 
sults during  the  first  hundred  years  of  our  Independence.  We 
entered  upon  our  second  century  by  an  immediate  experiment 
with  the  new.  After  twenty-five  years  of  trial  this  superb 
foundation  is  an  enduring  monument  to  its  success. 

One  of  the  chief  glories  of  the  new  education  is  the  advan- 
tages it  gives  to  women.  It  recognizes  and  enforces  their  equal 
rights  to  every  intellectual  and  industrial  opportunity  which 
school  or  college  can  give  to  men.  It  has  created  for  them  the 
Harvard  Annex  and  Barnard,  Vassar  and  Wellesley,  Smith  and 
Bryn  Mawr.  It  has  opened  the  doors  of  this  institution  that  they 
may  enjoy  all  its  privileges. 

It  was  the  disgrace  and  finally  the  ruin  of  Greek  civilization 
that  wives  were  uneducated.  Virtue  and  ignorance,  vice  and 
culture,  were  companions  among  the  women  of  Athens.  America 
has  always  been  distinguished  for  the  consideration  and  justice 
accorded  to  the  gentler  sex.  And  yet  it  is  only  within  the  last 
half  of  the  present  century  that  a  university  course  upon  the 
same  plane  as  the  highest  of  our  college  curriculums  has  been 
attainable  for  girls.  By  following  our  example  and  success, 
ancient  Cambridge,  in  England,  has  startled  the  conservatism  of 
the  ages. 

The  proud  ladies  who  danced  the  minuet  at  the  inauguration 
ball  of  George  "Washington  as  first  President,  never  dreamed  that 


23 

modern  development  might  compel  their  great-granddaughters 
to  enter  the  lists  of  labor  to  earn  a  living.  Our  boasted  progress 
has  known  neither  age  nor  sex.  Tender  youth  and  delicate 
womanhood  have  been  compelled  to  meet  its  requirements.  It 
threw  upon  woman  burdens  for  which  she  was  unprepared.  There 
were  only  few  things  for  which  she  was  trained,  though  she  was 
fitted  for  many.  The  overcrowding  of  a  limited  market  destroyed 
independence  and  has  compelled  women  to  accept  any  pittance 
which  avarice  might  grant.  The  tragedies  of  the  needle  have 
filled  the  ocean  with  tears  and  the  land  with  sorrows.  But  from 
their  splendid  colleges  our  girls  have  graduated  equipped  for  the 
better  positions  and  pay  of  the  important  chairs  in  the  schools  of 
the  country,  both  great  and  small,  and  for  literature,  journalism, 
and  art.  From  the  technological  and  manual  training  schools 
they  invade  the  fields  of  electrical  appliances  and  mechanical 
drawing,  of  photography  and  phonography,  of  architecture  and 
decoration.  It  is  still  the  reproach  of  our  times  that  women  re- 
ceive less  pay  than  men  for  the  same  work  equally  well  done. 
But  chivalry  is  an  emotion,  not  a  habit,  and  sentiment  is  left  at 
the  shop  door  in  the  business  world.  It  is  through  the  power 
they  acquire  here,  and  in  institutions  like  this,  that  women  will 
be  able  to  fight  for  and  win  their  rights. 

This  institution  is  an  object  lesson  in  the  proper  use  of  accu- 
mulated wealth.  The  essayist  and  the  orator  make  it  the  burning 
reproach  of  our  period  that  we  sacrifice  everything  to  money- 
getting  and  that  riches  are  our  god.  But  the  mad  desire  for 
accumulation  existed  before  Croesus,  and  the  passion  for  hoarding 
antedates  the  tragedy  of  Ananias  and  Sapphira.  Quickly  made 
fortunes  are  the  inevitable  incidents  of  rapid  development.  The 
greater  the  magnitude  of  the  enterprise  the  more  gigantic  are  the 
gains  of  the  far-sighted  and  audacious.  The  wider  the  scope  of 
the  invention  and  its  general  use  the  more  millions  flow  into  the 
pockets  of  the  inventor.  Nearly  all  our  rich  men  have  begun 
with  nothing  and  made  their  own  fortunes.  ~No  sane  man  desires 
to  destroy  the  opportunities  to  get  on  which  are  so  phenomenally 
frequent  in  this  country,  because  in  a  narrower  sense  he  expects 
either  himself  or  through  his  children  to  enjoy  their  benefits,  and 


24 

with  broader  views  he  rejoices  in  the  marvellous  results  in  the 
founding  of  cities  and  settlement  of  states,  and  in  the  increase 
of  national  power  and  prosperity  which  have  followed  individual 
enterprise  and  energy.  Under  the  old  civilization  no  one  ques- 
tioned the  rich  man's  peaceful  possession  of  his  property  but  the 
king  and  the  brigand.  Under  the  new  civilization  legislation 
tends  towards  the  appropriation  or  the  direction  of  the  disposition 
of  estates.  The  worst  enemy  or  the  best  friend  of  wealth  is  its 
possessor.  He  can  so  selfishly  administer  it  as  to  rouse  the 
hostility  of  the  public  and  recruit  the  ranks  of  Socialism,  or  he 
can  so  wisely  and  generously  bestow  his  surplus  that  the  commu- 
nity will  approve  his  work  and  protect  vested  interests  and  rights. 

]STo  one  remembers  nor  cares  how  Peter  Cooper  made  his 
money ;  but  neither  this  generation  nor  succeeding  ones  will  forget 
to  be  grateful  to  his  memory  for  the  wise  provisions  and  endow- 
ments he  made  for  the  education  of  the  people.  Commodore 
Vanderbilfs  control  of,  and  connection  with,  railways  will  in 
time  become  a  tradition  which  few  can  recall ;  but  his  name  will 
live  forever  through  the  university  he  founded  and  which  bears 
his  name.  Asa  Packer's  mining  and  transportation  companies 
are  already  administered  by  others  than  his  kin,  and  his  work  in 
their  creation  and  development  has  passed  out  of  mind  and  men- 
tion ;  but  the  college  he  established  and  enriched  will  ever  keep 
fresh  and  conspicuous  his  character  and  deeds. 

The  Drexel  Institute  is  not  a  charity.  It  neither  offends  the 
proud  nor  encourages  the  pauper.  The  dangerous  crank  is  the 
child  and  victim  of  competition.  This  school  will  give  him  a 
full  mind  and  healthy  body.  It  will  so  equip  him  and  open 
avenues  for  his  energies  that  instead  of  dynamiting  the  successful, 
he  will  be  himself  a  success.  It  is  a  practical  and  beneficent 
illustration  of  the  Divine  injunction,  "Thou  shalt  love  thy 
neighbor  as  thyself,"  which  extends  the  helping  hand  and  tenders 
warm  and  sympathetic  encouragement  to  the  brother  who  wants 
to  help  himself.  It  is  a  noble  recognition  of  the  needs  of  the 
youth  of  both  sexes  by  placing  before  them  the  weapons  and  the 
armor  for  the  battle  of  life  and  training  them  in  their  uses.  It 
will  nurture  and  instruct  a  better  and  broader  womanhood,  a 


25 

braver  and  more  intelligent  manhood,  and  a  more  patriotic 
citizenship  ;  and  as  the  years  increase  and  graduates  multiply,  the 
Republic  will  be  enriched  in  its  material  prosperity  and  receive 
new  vigor  and  earnestness  in  its  moral  and  intellectual  life. 

At  the  conclusion  of  Mr.  Depew's  address,  the  choir 
rendered  Mozart's  anthem  from  the  Twelfth  Mass,  "Glorious 
is  Thy  ]STame." 

PRESENTATION"    OF    THE    TRUST    DEEDS. 

ADDRESS   BY   THE    HON.  WAYNE   MAC   VEAGH,  LL.D.,  REPRESENTING 

MR.  DREXEL. 

The  presentation  of  the  deeds  of  trust,  on  behalf  of  Mr.  Drexel, 
was  made  by  the  Hon.  Wayne  Mac  Yeagh,  LL.D. 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen :  The  service  of  music  and  prayer 
and  praise  to  which  we  have  been  permitted  to  listen  has  been 
accepted,  I  am  sure,  by  all  of  us  alike  as  a  privilege  and  an  in- 
spiration. It  was  very  fortunate  that  Bishop  Potter  was  able  to 
return  to  the  city  where  his  youth  was  passed,  where  his  father's 
memory  is  still  cherished  as  one  of  our  most  precious  possessions, 
and  where  he  himself  is  as  beloved  and  honored  as  in  his  own 
diocese,  to  give  to  the  ceremony  of  to-day  the  sanction  of  the 
Church.  It  was  equally  fortunate  that  our  most  eloquent  orator 
should  increase  the  importance  of  this  important  occasion  and 
add  to  the  distinction  of  this  distinguished  assemblage,  not  only 
by  his  presence  but  also  by  expressing,  in  his  own  incomparable 
gift  of  golden  speech,  the  true  nobility  of  the  great  gift  we  are 
met  to  consummate  and  the  far-reaching  consequences  the  future 
holds  in  store  for  its  beneficiaries. 

The  duty  confided  to  me,  although  very  important,  may  hap- 
pily be  discharged  very  briefly,  but  that  it  is  not  to  be  discharged 
by  Mr.  Drexel  in  person  is  profoundly  to  be  regretted.  From  the 
inception  of  this  noble  enterprise,  he  doubtless  allowed  himself  to 
look  forward  to  the  day  when  it  would  be  his  pleasure  to  deliver 
to  the  gentlemen  appointed  to  receive  them  the  deeds  transferring 
his  generous  benefactions  to  the  Institute  which  was  to  bear  his 
name,  and  he  well  knew  that  his  delight  in  doing  so  would  be  far 


26 

more  than  doubled  by  having  at  his  side  her  whose  care  and 
sympathy  and  love  had  been  the  solace  and  reward  of  all  his 
labors;  but  that  Providence  whose  ways  are  indeed  "past  find- 
ing out,"  "but  whose  wisdom  it  behooves  us  not  at  all  to  dis- 
pute," has  seen  fit,  just  as  he  was  making  these  great  gifts  to 
others,  to  withdraw  his  own  best  gift  from  him  and  leave  him 
desolate  indeed.  It  is  only  because  of  his  unavoidable  absence 
that  I  am  representing  him. 

The  first  conveyance  I  am  asked  to  deliver  is  of  the  beauti- 
ful building  in  which  we  are  assembled,  together  with  its  contents 
and  its  appointments,  and  to  be  completed,  so  far  as  they  are  in- 
complete, in  the  same  wide  spirit  of  generosity  as  marks  that 
which  has  already  been  done.  I  undervalue  this  gift  in  estimat- 
ing it  to  represent  an  expenditure  of  $600,000. 

Those  of  you  who  have  enjoyed  the  opportunity  of  examin- 
ing the  building  could  not  fail  to  be  impressed  not  only  by 
its  beauty  but  also  by  the  wonderful  utilization  of  its  beauty, 
and  therein  is  struck  the  keynote  of  the  good  work  the  Drexel 
Institute  is  expected  to  accomplish.  Even  the  noble  and  stately 
hall  through  which  we  have  passed  is  only  a  fitting  vestibule  to 
the  different  workshops  which  surround  it — to  the  workshop 
filled  with  forges  as  well  as  to  the  workshop  filled  with  books. 
Throughout  the  entire  structure  the  idea  of  completeness  pre- 
vails— Mr.  Drexel's  resolve  having  plainly  been  that  the  cost  was 
a  secondary  consideration  and  that  whatever  was  a  useful  means 
to  the  ends  he  contemplated  was  to  be  supplied ;  and  it  has  been 
supplied  even  in  minutest  detail  and  extending  to  the  physical 
comfort  as  well  as  to  the  mental  and  manual  training  of  the 
young  men  and  young  women  who  are  to  pass  through  these 
halls  to  a  wider  and  more  useful,  as  well  as  to  a  wiser  and  more 
cultivated,  manhood  and  womanhood. 

Having  provided  such  a  beautiful  home  for  the  students  who 
are  to  gather  here  and  having  filled  it  with  every  device  calcu- 
lated to  make  their  labors  both  agreeable  and  fruitful,  Mr.  Drexel 
next  addressed  himself  to  the  duty  of  providing  for  the  support 
of  the  Institute  while  engaged  in  its  many  and  diversified  fields 
of  instruction. 


27 

He  fully  appreciated  that  the  breadth  of  view  and  the  com- 
prehensiveness of  design,  illustrated  in  the  eleven  departments 
into  which  the  present  work  of  the  Institute  has  been  divided, 
required  the  most  liberal  endowment,  and,  acting  in  the  same 
enlightened  spirit  which  actuated  him  in  the  erection  and  appoint- 
ments of  the  building,  he  enables  me  to  transfer  to  the  Institute 
securities  of  the  most  desirable  and  conservative  character,  ex- 
ceeding at  their  present  market  value  the  sum  of  $1,000,000,  and 
producing  a  revenue  of  $50,000  a  year.* 

I  find  it  extremely  difficult  to  speak  in  terms  of  becoming 
moderation  of  such  generosity.  These  are,  indeed,  princely  gifts, 
worthy  of  the  giver  and  of  the  noble-hearted  wife  who  encouraged 
him  to  make  them,  and  of  the  high  and  sacred  causes  of  art  and 
science  and  industry  to  which  they  are  dedicated.  And  these 
great  benefactions  possess  one  characteristic  which  ought  not  to 
pass  unnoticed.  The  money  thus  freely  given  is  singularly  free 
from  liability  to  even  unjust  criticism  of  the  manner  in  which  it 
was  acquired.  The  founder  of  this  Institute  never  sought  or 
received  any  special  favor,  by  legislation  or  otherwise,  of  any 
kind.  !No  single  dollar  of  the  million  and  a  half  dollars  Mr. 
Drexel  gives  away  to-day  represents  any  methods  of  acquiring 
wealth  except  open  and  straightforward  methods. 

Judge  Allison,  in  replying  recently  to  the  congratulations 
of  the  Bar  upon  having  completed  forty  years  of  most  useful  and 
honorable  judicial  service,  took  occasion  to  warn  us  that  while 
in  that  period  "  crimes  of  violence  had  greatly  diminished,  crimes 
of  a  different  character  had  greatly  increased  in  the  land,  and 
that  breaches  of  public  and  private  trusts  had  grown  with  rapid 
strides." 

It  is  our  happy  fortune  to  feel  perfectly  sure  that  no  portion 
of  the  property  to-day  transferred  represents  even  a  bounty  voted 
or  a  franchise  conferred  at  the  supposed  expense  of  the  public, 
much  less  any  trusts  betrayed,  public  or  private.     It  has  never 

*  Mr.  Drexel,  who  died  June  30th,  1893,  bequeathed  another  million  dollars 
to  the  endowment  of  the  Institute  ;  the  additions  made  to  the  equipment  of  the 
building  before  his  death  amounted  to  $400,000;  thus  making  a  total  of  three 
million  dollars  given  by  him  for  the  building,  equipment,  and  endowment. 


28 

been  suggested  that  the  founder  of  the  Drexel  Institute  practised 
any  arts  but  manly  arts,  or  that  his  great  fortune  was  the  result 
of  anything  but  the  advantages  his  comparatively  modest  inherit- 
ance gave  him,  and  his  own  industry,  integrity,  and  capacity  in 
making  use  of  them.  In  the  days  which  are  before  us  the  ques- 
tion is  sure  to  be  asked,  and  asked  often  unfairly  but  with  increas- 
ing bitterness,  of  the  possessors  of  great  fortunes,  not  so  much 
what  use  they  propose  to  make  of  them,  as  how  they  acquired 
them  ;  and  if  it  be  true,  as  poets  say,  and  a  few  people  may  still 
believe,  that  an  ounce  of  gold  honestly  come  by  is  capable  of 
conferring  more  true  happiness  than  "  the  wealth  of  Ormus  and 
of  Ind,"  which  wreckers  may  glean  from  the  beach  to  which  they 
have  beguiled  an  argosy,  the  Institute  whose  beginning  we  cele- 
brate to-day  ought  to  prove  an  unalloyed  source  of  joy  to  him 
who  confers  and  to  them  who  receive  its  advantages,  and  its 
troops  of  graduates  ought  to  be,  as  pray  Heaven  they  may  be, 
capable  of  living  simple,  brave,  honest  lives,  fearing  God,  and 
none  beside. 

In  such  a  benefaction,  where  the  money  has  been  acquired 
as  fairly  as  it  has  been  given  generously,  no  man  may  covet  any 
nobler  memory  of  himself  than  that  the  generations  yet  unborn 
are  to  rise  up  and  call  him  blessed  for  the  opportunity  this 
bounty  affords  them ;  and  one  sees,  as  in  prophetic  vision,  troops 
of  young  men  and  maidens  for  countless  years  filling  these  spaci- 
ous halls,  their  eager  faces  all  aflame  with  generous  enthusiasm 
and  their  young  hearts  overflowing  with  gratitude  that  they  are 
privileged  to  drink  at  the  fountains  of  knowledge  flowing  here  so 
freely  and  so  abundantly. 

For  me  the  chief  attraction  of  the  Drexel  Institute  is  the 
variety  of  the  fountains  at  which  the  coming  students  may  choose 
to  slake  their  thirst  for  knowledge.  It  is  difficult,  of  course,  to 
estimate  the  advantages  to  be  reaped  by  many  youths  of  both 
sexes  by  a  faithful  pursuit  of  the  practical  training  to  be  offered 
here.  To  make  of  young  men  competent  engineers,  electricians, 
and  chemists,  and  excellent  and  artistic  workers  in  wood  and 
iron ;  to  make  of  young  women  skilful  designers,  stenographers, 
photographers,  bookkeepers,  and  housekeepers;  and  especially  to 


LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  ef  ILLINOIS. 


29 

qualify  some  of  both  sexes  to  be  teachers  of  others  in  all  decora- 
tive and  useful  arts, — is  a  labor  abounding  in  usefulness  and 
honor ;  but  my  confident  hope  is  that  there  will  be  results  attained 
here  infinitely  excelling  these  in  real  and  abiding  value. 

If  thousands  of  the  young  people  of  Philadelphia  are  each 
year  brought  by  day  and  by  night  in  contact  with  truth  and 
beauty  in  such  of  their  myriad  forms  as  will  be  taught  and  dis- 
played in  the  Drexel  Institute,  this  community  will  grow  appre- 
ciably, and  not  slowly,  in  culture  and  in  the  ineffable  graces  of 
life  which  culture  brings  in  her  train. 

The  extensive  and  wisely  selected  library  and  the  spacious 
and  attractive  reading-room  will  be  almost  in  themselves  to  many 
students  a  liberal  education,  while  daily  contact  with  representa- 
tions of  the  sculpture  of  Greece  and  of  the  Renaissance  will 
arouse  the  dormant  instinct  for  beauty  and  give  birth  to  desires 
for  excellence  theretofore  undreamed  of.  The  museum,  already 
rich  in  examples  of  the  beautiful  creations  of  many  different 
lands,  and  sure  to  increase  rapidly  its  possessions,  will  be  a  daily 
object  lesson,  kindling  in  the  generous  minds  of  youth  the  same 
ennobling  aspirations. 

To  all  these  quickening  influences  music  is  to  add  her  charms, 
so  as  to  complete  with  art  and  letters  the  magic  circle  within 
which  the  everlasting  fountains  of  idealism  are  unsealed  and  the 
true  enjoyment  of  life  begins.  It  must  be  a  very  dull  youth  in- 
deed, of  either  sex,  who  can  sit  unmoved  in  such  an  audience 
chamber  as  this  while  the  music  of  the  grand  organ  falls  upon 
the  ear  and  memory  is  recalling  the  lifework  of  the  benefactors 
of  the  human  race  kindred  to  these  whose  names  we  see  around 
us :  great  musicians  who  have  soothed  the  weary  lives  of 
men  with  their  divine  melodies ;  great  painters  who  have  trans- 
ferred to  canvas  their  fadeless  dreams  of  immortal  beauty ;  great, 
sculptors  whose  forms  "  mock  the  eternal  dead  in  marble  immor- 
tality ;"  great  patriots  who  would  willingly  taste  death  that  their 
country  might  live  ;  great  philosophers  who  have  spent  their  lives 
in  the  ceaseless  and  the  faithful  pursuit  of  truth ;  and,  over  all, 
great  poets,  who  sit  in  inaccessible  and  throned  majesty,  the 
sovereign  educators  of  mankind. 


30 

Under  the  inspiration  and  with  the  benediction  of  such  com- 
panionship, the  pupils  of  the  Drexel  Institute  may  be  confidently 
expected  to  prove  themselves  worthy  of  the  eiforts  of  its  founder 
to  help  them  to  help  themselves  to  become  wiser  and  better  men 
and  women  than  if  its  gracious  and  generous  opportunities  had 
not  been  proffered  to  them.  It  only  remains  for  me  to  deliver 
these  deeds  to  Doctor  MacAlister,  the  President  of  the  Drexel 
Institute,  who  receives  them  on  behalf  of  the  Trustees. 

ACCEPTANCE    OF    THE    DEEDS. 
ADDRESS    BY  JAMES   MAC   AL1STER,    EL.D.,  PRESIDENT   OF   THE   INSTITUTE. 

I  have  the  honor,  on  behalf  of  the  Boards  of  Trustees  and 
Managers,  to  accept  the  deeds  of  trust  of  the  land,  building,  and 
endowment  of  the  Drexel  Institute  of  Art,  Science,  and  Industry. 
It  is  not  easy  to  express  in  adequate  terms  the  responsibility 
which  the  acceptance  of  this  trust  entails.  Were  the  institution 
which  begins  its  history  to-day  one  built  upon  old  and  established 
lines,  it  would  be  comparatively  an  easy  task  to  characterize  the 
duties  which  will  devolve  upon  those  who  are  to  be  charged  with 
its  management.  But  where  the  work  which  it  is  intended  to  do 
and  the  ends  it  is  expected  to  accomplish  are  in  so  many  respects 
new  and  untried,  a  certain  degree  of  reserve  is  becoming  in  him 
who  undertakes  to  state  the  important  obligations  which  will 
rest  upon  every  one  who  is  to  be  concerned  in  carrying  the  pur- 
poses of  the  founder  into  execution. 

I  am  sure,  however,  that  I  speak  truly  in  saying  that  the 
Board  of  Managers  are  as  profoundly  impressed  with  the  diffi- 
culties as  they  are  with  the  magnitude  of  the  trust  which  Mr. 
Drexel  has  confided  to  them.  The  official  relations  which  I  hold 
to  the  Institute  lead  me  to  emphasize  this  statement  while 
pledging  their  single-minded  devotion  to  the  interests  that  have 
been  committed  to  their  care. 

The  scope  and  purpose  of  the  Drexel  Institute  are  well  ex- 
pressed in  the  descriptive  words  of  its  title.  It  is  to  be  a  School 
of  Art,  Science,  and  Industry.  But  it  is  not  so  much  the  love  of 
the  beautiful,  the  knowledge  of  nature,  the  power  to  work,  con- 


31 

sidered  as  separate  elements  of  human  culture,  as  the  close  rela- 
tion and  interdependence  of  these,  that  will  form  the  subjects  of 
the  instruction  and  training.  And  it  is  in  this  direction  that 
the  problems  it  will  have  to  solve  will  be  found  to  lie.  The 
specific  object  of  the  Institute  is  to  open  new  and  higher  occu- 
pations, involving  knowledge  and  skill,  to  young  men  and  women. 
This  it  proposes  to  do  by  furnishing  opportunities  for  education 
in  the  principles  and  practice  that  underlie  such  of  the  industrial 
arts  as  will  be  included  in  its  curriculum.  The  productive  value 
and  rank  of  any  kind  of  labor  depend  upon  the  amount  of  mind 
that  is  put  into  it.  The  craftsman  differs  from  the  common 
laborer  in  just  this  respect.  It  is  the  divorce  between  design  and 
execution  that  has  led  to  the  deterioration  that  has  been  going  on 
in  nearly  all  the  industrial  arts  for  the  past  three  hundred  years. 
In  the  great  days  when  the  common  articles  of  life  were  made 
that  are  now  treasured  for  their  beauty  in  our  museums,  the  arti- 
ficer and  the  designer  were  one ;  they  made  with  their  own  hands 
what  their  imagination  had  created.  And  with  this  work  went 
a  joy  which  has  passed  out  of  the  life  of  the  worker.  It  is  to 
bring  back  into  the  school  the  careful  training  that  was  formerly 
given  by  the  master  workman  to  his  apprentices  in  the  shop  that 
the  Drexel  Institute  has  come  into  existence.  By  joining  in- 
struction in  science  and  art  to  earnest  and  sincere  labor,  it  will 
seek  to  train  craftsmen  and  craftswomen  in  pursuits  that  are 
now  relegated  to  the  level  of  unskilled  labor ;  and  in  so  doing  it 
will  strive  to  make  life  richer  and  happier  while  elevating  the 
laborer  and  enhancing  the  value  of  his  handiwork.  The  Drexel 
Institute  is  a  product  of  the  new  education ;  of  that  larger  view 
of  the  school  which  is  due  to  Pestalozzi,  the  humble  Swiss  school- 
master, whose  name  might  well  have  been  inscribed  with  those 
of  the  great  benefactors  of  mankind  which  adorn  the  walls  of  this 
hall.  The  time  has  come  when  the  domain  of  education  must  be 
enlarged ;  when,  to  the  fair  humanities  which  have  filled  so  large 
and  important  a  place  in  the  schools  of  the  past,  must  be  added 
the  practical  necessities  of  life  that  the  evolution  of  society  has 
brought  into  relief.  The  two  questions  of  the  day  that  are  more 
vital  to  the  existence  and  well-being  of  every  civilized  nation 


32 

than  all  others  are  the  organization  of  labor  and  the  universal 
education  of  the  people.  And  it  behooves  economists  and  law- 
makers to  take  notice  that  these  two  problems  are  inseparably 
connected.  All  the  legislation  which  the  wisdom  of  statesmen 
or  the  ardor  of  reformers  may  devise  will  not  end  the  conflict 
between  labor  and  capital  or  bring  to  a  close  the  disturbances 
that  now  threaten  the  very  existence  of  society. 

The  elevation  of  labor  is  no  longer  a  thing  to  be  debated ; 
the  point  it  has  already  gained  is  only  the  vantage  ground  for 
the  expanse  that  lies  beyond.  The  need  of  a  deeper,  wider 
sympathy  for  the  laborer  on  the  part  of  those  who  stand  outside 
his  sphere  is  conceded  on  all  sides.  But  the  reconcilement  will 
be  found  only  in  education.  Indeed,  education,  properly  conceived, 
is  the  essential  condition  of  all  human  progress.  When  those 
who  are  charged  with  the  administration  of  scholastic  affairs  have 
risen  to  Emerson's  idea  of  education,  as  being  as  broad  as  man, 
and  that  its  great  object  should  be  commensurate  with  life,  we 
shall  find  provision  made  for  something  more  than  the  mere 
sharpening  of  the  intellectual  faculties.  The  development  of  the 
bodily  powers,  the  cultivation  of  right  standards  of  living,  and 
practical  training  in  those  industrial  pursuits  that  come  within 
the  range  of  the  school,  will  all  find  place  in  that  complete  and 
harmonious  unfolding  and  discipline  of  the  powers  and  faculties 
of  man's  being  which  has  been  the  ideal  of  every  great  educator 
in  the  history  of  the  world. 

It  is  not  my  purpose  at  this  time  to  go  into  an  exposition 
of  the  plans  which  have  been  adopted  for  carrying  on  the  work 
of  the  Institute.  I  shall  have  the  honor  at  an  early  day  to  speak 
at  length  on  this  subject.  Meanwhile,  the  Preliminary  Circular 
of  Information  may  be  taken  as  including  the  ground  which  the 
Institute  is  intended  to  cover.  I  may  also  add  that  at  this  stage 
in  the  life  of  the  Institute  the  practical  development  of  its  work 
is  quite  as  important  as  the  discussion  of  principles.  It  should 
be  remembered  that  an  institution  like  this  is  not  made  in  a  day 
or  a  year.  We  shall  move  slowly  at  first ;  we  shall  have  to  solve 
some  difficult  problems ;  we  shall  need  to  think  deeply  and  work 
cautiously ;  but  there  is  a  bright  and  ever-opening  future  ahead. 


33 

Bearing  the  great  purpose  of  the  founder  in  mind  and  counting 
upon  the  confidence  and  encouragement  of  the  public,  we  shall 
push  forward  the  development  of  the  several  departments  as 
rapidly  as  circumstances  may  permit ;  and  we  have  faith  that  in 
time  the  Drexel  Institute  will  realize  all  that  the  splendid  founda- 
tion which  it  has  received  gives  cause  to  expect. 

It  may  be  permitted  me  to  say  that  the  scheme  upon  which 
the  Institute  has  been  projected  is  neither  narrow  nor  illiberal. 
It  has  certain  specific  objects  which  are  a  departure  from  the 
courses  found  in  existing  colleges  and  schools.  But  surely  there 
is  nothing  in  these  which  call  for  defence.  It  will  seek  to  elevate, 
beautify,  and  ennoble  the  home  by  its  courses  in  the  domestic 
arts ;  it  will  offer  a  curriculum  in  the  mechanic  arts  which  will  be 
adapted  to  bring  its  graduates  in  sympathy  with  the  industrial 
spirit  which  is  not  the  least  important  characteristic  of  modern 
civilization  ;  it  will  open  up  new  technical  courses  that  will  give 
to  some  important  occupations  a  higher  position  in  the  economic 
scale,  and  secure  a  larger  reward  to  those  who  adopt  them  as  a 
means  of  livelihood.  Surely,  these  are  objects  not  unworthy  of 
the  greatest  university  in  the  land  !  Whatever  tends  to  enlarge 
and  improve  the  means  of  self-support  for  men  and  women 
serves  to  strengthen  their  self-dependence  and  self-respect,  and 
these  are  virtues  that  lie  at  the  roots  of  a  nation's  strength  and 
greatness. 

But  outside  of  these  special  aims  the  Institute  is  intended 
to  offer  to  the  masses  of  the  people  opportunities  of  culture  and 
enlightenment  in  the  broadest  sense.  The  Library,  Museum,  and 
Lectures  will  seek  to  carry  to  them  all  that  art  and  literature  and 
science  can  do  to  make  life  nobler  and  better.  The  immortal 
beauty  which  Athens  and  Florence  have  bequeathed  to  the  world 
will  be  made  to  sweeten  the  daily  toil  of  the  bread-winner ;  and 
while  the  Institute  may  rightly  be  characterized  as  secular  in  its 
foundation  and  aims,  it  will  not,  I  am  sure,  forget  the  place  which 
those  ethical  and  religious  principles  that  are  universal  and  eternal 
should  hold  in  every  scheme  of  education. 

I  cannot  bring  these  remarks  to  a  close  without  a  reference 
to  the  bereavement  which  has  caused  the  absence  of  him  to  whom 


34 

all  these  attractive  surroundings  and  all  this  fair  promise  are  due. 
The  companion  who  shared  with  the  founder  the  fond  anticipa- 
tions which  are  in  part  realized  to-day  is  not  here  to  cheer  us 
with  her  gentle  presence.  But  we  have  the  precious  memory  of 
all  that  she  hoped  for  the  Institute.  For  the  Board  of  Trustees, 
and,  may  I  be  permitted  to  add,  for  myself,  that  memory  will  be 
the  greatest  incentive  to  make  the  Institute  worthy  of  the  pure 
and  unselfish  purpose  which  gave  it  birth. 

BENEDICTION    BY    BISHOP   WHITAKEE. 

The  ceremonies  concluded  with  the  benediction  by  Bishop 
Whitaker : — 

The  peace  of  God,  which  passeth  all  understanding,  keep 
your  hearts  and  minds  in  the  knowledge  and  love  of  God  and 
of  His  Son,  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord ;  and  the  blessing  of  God 
Almighty,  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  be  amongst 
you  and  remain  with  you  always.     Amen. 

The  audience  dispersed  with  the  organ  pealing  Beethoven's 
majestic  "  Hallelujah,"  from  "  Mount  of  Olives." 


THE    BUILDING. 

This  classic  and  spacious  edifice  has  already  become  a  land- 
mark on  "West  Chestnut  Street.  Its  walls  of  buff  brick  and 
terra-cotta  show  conspicuously  at  a  considerable  distance.  The 
style  of  the  building  is  the  classic  Renaissance,  or  what  would 
be  better  described  as  a  modern  interpretation  of  Greek  forms — 
perhaps  one  should  rather  say  motives.  This  gives  assurance 
of  its  purity  of  spirit  and  explains  the  impression  it  makes  as  a 
harmonious  whole.  Even  the  colors  of  the  marble  used  are 
in  harmony  with  the  scheme  of  decoration,  which  consists 
chiefly  of  buffs  and  reds.      The  chaste  dignity  of  the  Greek 


MAIN    ENTRANCE. 


LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  of  ILLINOIS. 


35 

motives  is  met  with  in  almost  everything"  about  the  building, 
even  to  the  bronze  electric  light  fixtures  which  were  specially 
designed  for  the  Institute.  Additional  beauty  is  lent  to  the  ex- 
terior by  the  ornamental  terra-cotta  work  which  is  perhaps  the 
most  artistic  ever  applied  to  a  building  in  this  city.  The  facade 
on  Chestnut  Street  is  broken  in  the  middle  by  an  attic  story 
which  projects  above  the  roof  of  the  structure  proper.  This  is 
the  centre  of  the  ornamentation,  for  here  the  wide  frieze  which 
extends  around  the  building  between  the  second  and  third 
stories  meets  above  the  lofty  archway.  The  portal,  which  is  the 
main  entrance,  is  twenty-six  feet  wide  at  the  base  and  rises  to 
a  height  of  thirty-five  feet.  The  decoration  of  the  arch  is 
elaborate  and  is  made  doubly  interesting  by  the  addition  of  a 
series  of  finely  executed  high-relief  medallion  portraits:  Bach, 
representing  music ;  Raphael,  painting  ;  Goethe,  poetry  ;  Colum- 
bus, navigation ;  Newton,  mathematics ;  Faraday,  physics ; 
Humboldt,  natural  history ;  Jefferson,  government ;  Galileo, 
astronomy ;  Shakespeare,  drama ;  Michael  Angelo,  sculpture ; 
William  of  Sens,  architecture.  In  the  spandrels  of  the  arch  are 
medallions  of  Apollo  and  Moses. 

The  central  object,  the  keystone,  as  it  were,  of  the  arch, 
is  a  well-modeled,  graceful  figure  representing  the  Genius  of 
Knowledge.  Above  her,  in  the  frieze,  is  a  tablet  bearing  the 
words,  "  Drexel  Institute."  Another  frieze  extends  across  the 
attic.  On  each  side  of  the  portal  is  a  wrought-iron  lamp  pro- 
jecting from  the  wall.  Each  lamp  is  filled  with  a  cluster  of  in- 
candescent electric  lights. 

THE    GREAT    COURT. 

The  portal  admits  to  a  portico  supported  on  each  side  by 
red  Georgian  marble  columns  and  wainscoted  with  differently 
colored  marbles ;  the  ceiling  is  paneled  with  oak.  From  this 
portico  the  visitor  passes  through  the  entrance-hall,  the  ceiling 
of  which  is  supported  by  marble  columns,  to  the  great  court, 
sixty-five  feet  square,  and  fifty-six  feet  from  the  floor  to  the 
painted  glass  ceiling.     The  wide  marble  stairways,  which  rise 


36 

on  each  side  to  the  second  floor,  and  the  cloister-like  galleries, 
which  completely  encircle  the  court  on  each  floor,  will,  perhaps, 
be  found  more  impressive  than  the  exterior  of  the  building. 
The  court  is  floored  with  tiling  in  which  buffs  and  dull  reds 
predominate.  The  ceiling  is  decorated  in  the  same  tints  with 
the  adaptation  of  some  of  the  conventional  Greek  forms. 

The  walls  of  the  court  above  the  dado  of  colored  Georgian 
marble  are  laid  with  white  enameled  brick.  The  arches  on  each 
floor  forming  the  galleries  are  also  faced  with  the  same  material. 
On  the  south  gallery  this  sameness  is  broken  by  the  introduc- 
tion of  two  pairs  of  red  marble  columns  in  each  gallery.  The 
stairways  are  of  white  Italian  marble,  the  only  foreign  marble 
used  in  the  construction  of  the  building,  except  in  some  of  the 
lavatories.  The  gallery  railings  and  the  balustrades  of  the  stair- 
ways are  of  iron  grill- work,  painted  cream-color  and  heightened 
with  gold-leaf.  The  design  of  the  railings  is  very  pleasing,  and 
they  are  said  to  be  specimens  of  the  best  ornamental  iron-work 
ever  produced  in  Philadelphia. 

THE   MUSEUM. 

To  the  right  of  the  entrance-hall  is  the  Museum,  an  apart- 
ment about  seventy  feet  square,  the  walls  tinted  with  a  light 
Indian-red,  and  the  wainscoting  and  woodwork  in  black. 

THE   LIBRARY    AND   READING-ROOM 

is  an  apartment  one  hundred  and  ten  feet  long  and  sixty  feet 
wide.  All  the  tables  and  cases  are  of  polished  oak.  On  one  of 
the  panels  of  the  room  is  this  apt  quotation  from  Bacon's  Essay 
on  Reading :  "  Read  not  to  contradict  and  confute,  nor  to  be- 
lieve and  take  for  granted,  nor  to  find  talk  and  discourse,  but  to 
weigh  and  consider." 

THE    LECTURE-HALL. 

To  the  right  of  the  court,  beyond  the  museum,  is  the  lecture- 
hall.     It  is  fitted  up  with  appliances  for  scientific  experiments 


< 
< 

h 


< 


h 

O 
o 

h 
z 

w 
o 


LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  of  ILLINOIS. 


37 

and  furnished  with  chairs  for  three  hundred  students.    The  floor 
is  inclined,  so  that  a  good  view  of  the  platform  may  be  had. 

president's  and  secretary's  offices. 

Near  the  museum  is  the  office  of  the  President  of  the 
Institute.  It  is  handsomely  wainscoted  in  mahogany  and  fur- 
nished in  the  same  wood.  The  floor  is  laid  with  wood  carpet. 
Across  the  hall,  and  occupying  a  corresponding  position  on  the 
left,  is  the  office  of  the  Secretary  and  Registrar.  It  is  finished 
in  polished  oak,  the  prevailing  style  of  woodwork  in  the  building. 

THE    AUDITORIUM. 

In  order  to  reach  the  Auditorium  from  the  great  court,  the 
visitor  descends  a  marble  stairway ;  there  is  also  an  entrance  on 
Thirty-second  Street.  This  hall  is  capable  of  seating  fifteen 
hundred  persons.  On  the  stage,  which  with  the  screen  is  richly 
colored,  is  the  organ,  decorated  with  gold  in  the  style  of  the 
Italian  Renaissance.  Doorways  lead  from  the  stage  on  both 
sides  to  the  retiring-rooms.  Over  one  is  the  name  of  Bach,  and 
above  it  is  a  scroll  inscribed  with  a  chord  from  one  of  his  scores ; 
a  similar  specimen  of  Handel's  music  ornaments  the  other  door- 
way ;  the  decoration  includes  also  representations  of  musical 
instruments.  On  the  south  wall  of  the  room,  in  the  recessed 
arches,  are  inscribed  the  names  of  the  great  leaders  of  thought 
and  culture :  Aristotle,  Dante,  Michael  Angelo,  Shakespeare, 
Beethoven,  Washington,  Gutenberg,  Galileo,  Franklin,  Watt, 
and  Darwin. 

BASEMENT. 

A  few  steps  down  another  stairway  lead  the  visitor  to  the 
basement.  Here,  under  the  court,  is  the  electric  plant.  There 
are  four  sixty-horse-power  Westinghouse  compound  engines 
made  especially  for  the  Institute.  Each  one  drives  an  Edison 
dynamo  of  a  new  type,  the  whole  supplying  a  current  to  twenty- 


38 

five  hundred  incandescent  lamps.  One  of  the  interesting  objects 
in  this  apartment  is  the  marble  switch-board.  The  plant  is  also 
to  be  used  as  a  means  of  instructing  the  students  in  applied 
electricity.  The  boilers  are  also  in  the  basement,  and  are  con- 
nected with  the  Johnson  self-regulating  heating-apparatus,  an 
ingenious  contrivance  which  controls  the  temperature  in  any 
room  in  the  building  after  it  is  set  at  the  required  degree. 

CLASS-ROOMS,  LABORATORIES,  AND    STUDIOS. 

There  are  in  the  building,  besides  the  auditorium,  lecture- 
hall,  museum,  library  and  reading-room,  gymnasium,  coat- 
rooms,  and  lavatories,  forty-three  class-rooms,  laboratories,  and 
studios.  These  are  situated  on  the  second,  third,  and  fourth 
floors.  The  Physical  Laboratory  is  located  on  the  second,  and 
the  Chemical  Laboratory  on  the  third  floor;  both  are  admirably 
equipped  with  every  appliance  necessary  for  work.  The  Chemi- 
cal Laboratory  has  accommodations  for  one  hundred  and  sixty 
students  ;  adjoining  it  is  the  private  laboratory  for  the  use  of  the 
professor  of  chemistry.  On  the  second  and  third  floors  are  the 
coat-rooms  and  lavatories.  The  Board  of  Managers'  Room  is 
on  the  second  floor.  This  is  a  fine  apartment,  paneled  in  mahog- 
any, with  a  handsomely  decorated  ceiling 

Considerable  space  on  the  third  floor  is  devoted  to  the  art 
classes.  The  antique-room  is  a  large  room  and  will  be  supplied 
with  a  fine  collection  of  plaster-casts.  Beside  it  are  the  other 
rooms  of  the  art  department,  occupying  space  on  the  north  and 
west  sides  of  the  building. 

The  two  rooms  for  the  cookery  classes  are  also  on  the  third 
floor.     In  one  is  a  model  dining-room,  paneled  in  oak. 

THE    GYMNASIUM. 

The  gymnasium  occupies  the  fourth  floor  in  the  front  part 
of  the  building.  It  is  a  very  large  apartment,  of  a  good  height, 
and  entered  by  means  of  a  stairway  on  each  side.  One  of  these 
is  for  the  use  of  women  only  and  the  other  for  the  use  of  men. 


D 
CO 

O 


U88A8Y 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  of  ILLINOIS. 


39 

The  apparatus  was  designed  by  Dr.  Hartwell,  of  Johns  Hopkins 
University. 

Connected  with  the  entrances  to  the  gymnasium  are  the 
bath-rooms  ;  they  are  handsomely  fitted  up  with  marble  compart- 
ments. The  plumbing  here,  as  in  other  parts  of  the  building, 
is  of  the  best  workmanship  and  in  accordance  with  the  require- 
ments of  modern  sanitary  science. 

LIGHTING,   HEATING,  AND    VENTILATION. 

Great  attention  has  been  given  to  the  lighting,  heating,  and 
ventilation  of  the  building.  Every  room  receives  its  light  from 
the  outside,  for  the  building  is  bounded  on  three  sides  by  streets, 
and  on  the  other  side  by  a  wide  passageway,  in  which  are  fire- 
proof towers  to  be  used  as  fire-escapes ;  their  only  connection 
with  the  building  is  by  iron  bridges.  On  the  rear  of  the  build- 
ing, on  Ludlow  Street,  are  two  additional  fire-escapes. 


L.      7-90   -^ 


